Setting up new receiver, UK channels not working

F

fla_independent

Member
My Satellite Setup
Elap motorised satellite dish and digital receiver disecq 1.2
My Location
Normandy, France
Hello

I hope somebody can help. I'm trying to set up a new Fuji Onkyo DVR satellite receiver. It's pointed to Astra 19.2 and has a card to receive the local (French) channels.

I've done a channel search, and it has produced a long list of all the expected channels, but many of them, including all the UK ones that I'm particularly interested in, don't show anything at all when selected.

I've tried rescanning, with the same results: French channels, BBC world, Euro news, etc are fine, but no sign of ITV, BBC1, etc even though they are shown on the list of found channels.

Even more confusing, the previous box I had connected showed all the channels correctly.

Any ideas gratefully received!
 
If your dish is pointing to 19.2E you simply cannot get the UK Channels from 28.2/28.5E.

You need a dish aligned to 28.2E/28.5E ................. either that or a dish with two separate LNBs on a bracket, suitably aligned and spaced.

I have a feeling there is some information that we haven't elicited yet!


Edit: According to your Profile, you have a motorised dish: So, with the Receiver being new, you have probably omitted to set up DiSEqC (or USALS) correctly.

Please clarify exactly what dish arrangement you have.
 
Hi there

You are pointing at 19.2East not 28.2 East which is where the UK freesat channels are transmitted from, try swinging the dish another 9 degree East then scan again


edit
snap me too like an special lnb or something
 
hi Tivu and Topper

Thank you for responding so quickly.

I did have a motorised system, but that stopped working. I now have two satellite dishes, two boxes and two TVs.

One set up is pointing to 28.2 East, and working fine.

The other is pointing at 19.2, where both French and most UK channels can now be found (I think this is a fairly recent development). Anyway, my old satellite receiver found them all there without problems. I really want to be able to get both French and main British channels on the same TV/box, rather than having to move from room to room in order to watch one or the other.
 
No.

UK Channels are on 28.2/28.5E, as stated. They have been for years and will remain so.

The 28.2/28.5E dish should be used for UK Channels and the 19.2E dish for your French stuff.

In order to see both dishes on the one Receiver you need a DiSEqC switch (I somehow suspect you do actually have one ..................... as the old receiver worked fine): So, I suggest as before that the root of the problem is simply the new Receiver's DiSEqC settings.

Dig into the Menus and you'll find against 19E a DiSEqC setting called something like "A" or "1".

Ditto with 28E, but it should say "B" or "2".

Just a simple settings change should sort you out.

(I'm assuming "A" or "1" is the 19E dish as the absence of correct DiSEqC settings defaults to "A")
 
The only true UK channels on 19.2E are MTV Hits, VH1, MTV Dance and a couple of others, you will never find the ITV channels on that bird

You say you have 2 dishes, where does the cable run to from them both?

On the receiver that currently gets the UK channels from 28E, look through the menus for DiSEqC settings and check what is entered for A and B then enter these on your new box and do a rescan of 28E
 
Thank you Tivu and Smoggy07

Now I'm terminally confused. I understood that most (but not all) UK channels are available on 19.2 – in fact, I was receiving them on 19.2 along with the French, German and other European channels up until a couple of months ago.

This was definitely in addition to the Freesat service received from 28E. I did have a DiSEqC switch, so that I could receive both satellite's channels on the same box. If I toggled between 28E and 19.2E, I received the UK channels on the former, and French channels plus most UK ones on the latter.

When we bought an extra TV/box, my first thought (which was wrong, sadly) was that I could split the feed from the two satellite dishes, combined via the DiSEqC switch, so that I had exactly the same arrangement on two televisions. That failed, so it then seemed better to revert to one dish per box/TV. Since I knew I could get all the French plus most of the UK channels on 19.2, I decided that should be the supply for the main TV, with the subsidiary one pointing to 28E.

Having scanned 19.2, as I said before, it lists all the UK channels I expected it to, alongside the French ones which are there in all their glory, but it just doesn't deliver any content... You both sound absolutely confident that these channels aren't on 19.2, so I wonder why they turn up on the list of channels found? And why I was able to watch them on 19.2 before? Did they feature there in the past, but no longer?

Many thanks for any thoughts!
 
Since 1998 all UK digital satellite TV has been from 28.2E. Sky closed down their last analogue channels on 19.2E in 2001 but they have never transmitted from there in digital form. There simply isn't enough bandwidth for all the UK, German, French and Polish channels to share one satellite position.

Could your box be remembering some old UK channel lists rather then finding the channels on 19.2E?
 
It's not a matter of confidence, but of fact that the UK Channels (BBC, ITV etc) are on 28E.

So, either the Channels were pre-stored, or you actually do have an operable DiSEqC switch that isn't set up to work with the new receiver.

And it is not possible that you have ever watched them on 19.2E simply because they are not there!.

Therefore, you must have picked up a feed from your 28E dish (via DiSEqC switch ................ ??) if you've ever been able to scan them in.



With a dish aligned to 19E you can only pick up and view Channels from 19E.

If you scan a "Satellite" ie a Labelled Transponder list in your receiver, with a Name like 28E or Astra 2 or some such, but your dish is pointing to 19E you will get some results, but they will nevertheless be 19E Channels: This is because frequency and other parameters are re-used across the arc - this is possible because you cannot receive Channels from a Satellite other than that which your dish is aligned to.

Finally, if you have eg BBC1 (SD) in any list and get a Strength and Quality reading but no sound or vision, then that is an indication that your dish is not aligned to 28E and you are instead picking up a Transponder on the Satellite you are actually aligned to which has the same nominal frequency but where other parameters differ.

So, to your Receiver a "Satellite" is simply an editable data list with an editable label: The receiver does not have the faintest idea where your dish is pointing. The only value in a "Satellite" is when you are matching a sensible label eg 28E with a dish actually aligned to 28E. Anything else gives rise to confusion.
 
So, to resolve the issue:


You have a dish on 19E

You have a dish on 28E

If you connect a feed from each dish to a 2 port DiSEqC switch then all you do is connect the switch output to your Receiver and set 19E = A and 28E = B (Or the other way around, depending upon which port you connected each dish to.

That's it.

If each dish has a twin output LNB , you can repeat the exercise with a second DiSEqC switch and feed another Receiver.

and so on.

ie If you have enough feeds from your LNBs, you can receive both 19E and 28E on each and every box.
 
Thank you for being so patient with me - I suppose the UK channels that appeared on 19.2 were actually being picked by the DiSEqC switch from 28E without me realising. I guess the best answer is to add an extra LNB on each dish (assuming this is possible) and another DiSEqC switch, then I'll be able to have both satellite feeds to both TVS
 
Not an extra LNB ............. Simply replace both existing LNBs with Dual Output (Quad Output even better as that give you expansion capacity and are probably the same price) LNBs and connect a feed from each dish to a DiSeqC switch then fed that to one receiver. And repeat for the other receiver. Cheap. Simple Effective.
 
If your LNBs only have one output you'll need to replace them with twin or quad output versions.
 
One other point - whereabouts in Normandy are you, exactly?

We have Members in the Region that, you never know,might be able to help in the flesh, as it were.

Big place, I know - from our Holiday last year - but you never Know .....................
 
Thank you all so much! I have located twin output LNBs at our local DIY store, and will give it a go!
 
fla_independent said:
Thank you all so much! I have located twin output LNBs at our local DIY store, and will give it a go!
Click to expand...
In my experience the LNBs available in French DIY shops are of limited choice, variable quality and overpriced....
 
And don't forget a couple of two-port DiSEqC switches.

Do fleabay deliver in France ..................... ?
 
Tivù said:
And don't forget a couple of two-port DiSEqC switches.

Do fleabay deliver in France ..................... ?
Click to expand...
ebay.fr :) I've found in general with UK-based sites (Amazon UK included) it depends on the vendor.
 
There's this one on Amazon France with free delivery :

www.amazon.fr/Dis2-1Bo-Botelco-Diseqc-Switch-Satellite-Commutateur/dp/B004Y63R7Y/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1362506193&sr=1-1
 
sonnetpete said:
There's this one on Amazon France with free delivery :

www.amazon.fr/Dis2-1Bo-Botelco-Diseqc-Switch-Satellite-Commutateur/dp/B004Y63R7Y/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1362506193&sr=1-1
Click to expand...
ah yes - that's bfsat. I've bought quite a few things from them (the T-90, for example) - there was a problem with one order (they sent me 100m of coax rather than 100 F-connectors) that they sorted out very rapidly. They tend to be cheaper if you go to their website directly rather than through Amazon, but I have no idea how that would affect the delivery charge. I have two four-way Botelco switches cascaded with a 10-way - they do the job :)
 
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